Alexa devices get deep discounts for Amazon Prime Day

Amazon is deeply discounting its two most popular Alexa devices today, the Echo and Echo Dot, as the retailers annual Prime Day sale kicks off. Starting tonight at 6 PM PT, the Echo will receive a 50 percent price cut, making it $89.99, and the Echo Dot will drop by $15, bringing it down to $34.99. Meanwhile, Amazons bluetooth speaker with Alexa, the Amazon Tap, is $50 off, making it $79.90.

The sale on the Echo Dot is notable, given that a recent e-commerce study from Adobe identified the Alexa-powered smart speaker as the best seller among Amazons Echo line. Their report indicated the Dots lower price point attracted consumers, who perhaps saw the device as an affordable way to dip their toe into the waters of voice computing, without committing to the pricier Echo. Now, for Prime Day, the Dot is priced the lowest it has ever been.

Google Home devices had sold well during the 2016 holidays, thanks to a late year-end release, the report also said, but the Echo Dot then quickly caught up and surpassed it.

By the first quarter of the year, the Dot led smart speaker sales, accounting for 53 percent of the market compared with Google Homes 30 percent share. (Adobe had only counted non-proprietary salesmeaning those outside of Amazon and Googles first-party storefronts. That gives us a window into device popularity, but not the full picture, we should note.)

However, even at a 30 percent share, that put the Google Home ahead of other Echo devices including the original Echo and Amazon Tap.

With Prime Day, Amazons decision to bring down the Echo Dot to its lowest price ever could help it solidify its lead in the market, giving the retailer further momentum. And by discounting the Echo by 50 percent,Amazon could clear out older inventoryperhaps in advance of a hardware refresh.

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